


Miles to Go

by somedaynew



Category: Chris Pine - Fandom, Pinto - Fandom, Wordplay as Foreplay - Fandom, Zachary Quinto - Fandom
Genre: AU, College, College AU, M/M, road trip au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-11
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 02:08:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/999613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somedaynew/pseuds/somedaynew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris and Zach are both fresh out of college and adrift in the world. Both with hopes of finding some purpose they run into each other in the middle of nowhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miles to Go

You wouldn’t believe how much dust there was. It reminded him of being at the beach as a kid; the dust seeped into every crevice and crease and stayed there forever. The only difference was that although the sand was gritty it reminded you of the sunny days you spent at the beach and the way the waves would lap against your ankles. The dust just reminded him constantly of where he was now: alone on the side of the road.

He shambled along in his worn out sneakers, occasionally shifting his bag from one shoulder to the other. It had been a couple of days since he started this. Admittedly it was far from his first choice to try and meander his way to California, but right now it was his only choice. His car was broken down, his bank account was dry and his parents had cut him off until he “could get his act together.” Once a free spirit, he now felt chained to the dreary thing he called existence.

No one had bothered to stop or even slow down. Why would they? Hitchhiking was practically unheard of these days and no one in their right mind would pick up a scruffy looking guy with a bag filled with who-knows-what slung across their back. In anyone else’s shoes he wouldn’t stop.

Food had been scarce lately. He’d gone to the grocery and spent the last of his cash on a couple of instant soup cups, some packages of soup cups and a few thirty cent water bottles. It wasn’t much and it sure wasn’t preferable but it was what a deadbeat like him could afford. There was no way to heat the water or the soup so he usually crunched down the dry noodles and slurped down the cold soup.

Most of the roads he had been following were sparsely populated as far as traffic and people went. He’d started a game of counting the cars that passed. It was a boring game. Today there had only been six, and in one of them some invidious teenager had leaned out the window and tried to throw a soda can at his head. Luckily, the kid hadn’t accounted for the speed and preceded him by a good twenty feet. Upon striking the ground it had burst and started to spray streams of soda several feet in the air.

For the last few miles he’d been kicking a stone in front of him. He had quickly realized that just walking and staring into the distance could drive you insane. You had to have something to focus on. Once or twice he’d had to chase the stone into the road and maneuver it back onto the edge of the pavement. It was gray and rough around the edges but it also sparkled if you got it in the light a certain way, the way rock sometimes do. He was about to nudge it ahead once more when it began reverberating against the dark asphalt. Another car was coming.

He held out his hand in the typical thumbs up position. Without moving into the barrow pit, he kept moving. The drivers were more willing to get out of his way than he was of theirs anyway. Yet, just as he was tensing for the great rush of air that accompanied the car he heard the engine slow abruptly. The tires crunched slowly on the gravelly road as the driver pulled into the oncoming lane and slowed almost to a crawl as to match his pace.

“Need a lift,” the driver asked cheerily as he slowed to a stop, leaning over the console.

“Well, I dunno. I thought you did the thumb thing for fun,” he sighed in response.

“Whatever, smartass. Do you want in or not?”

That was when he finally turned, bent and got a good luck at the man behind the wheel. He had a mischievous look to him and his eyes shone as if he knew something he wasn’t letting on. If it wasn’t so hot out and he wasn’t exhausted he would swear that the stranger had the most florid of blue eyes. They were a beauteous shade, but then again he’d seen plenty of mirages already. His hair was a dirty blonde and there was some scruff along his jaw line. He was actually rather nice looking if it weren’t for that condescending smirk on his face.

“I guess I could take a break and put my feet up for a while,” he retorted as he reached for the door handle.

“Like hell you will,” the driver laughed and reached out to dust off the dash with his hand. “This car is vintage.”

He rolled his eyes in response as he sat on the passenger side on swung his bag into the backseat, glad to finally lift the weight from his aching shoulders. He sunk into the seat, comfortable at last in the oasis of air conditioning.

“Name’s Chris. Chris Pine,” the driver stated with a smile as he pulled back into the right hand lane and stepped on the gas. “Yours?”

“My name’s Zachary Quinto.”

“Zachary, huh?” he said as if testing it on his tongue. “Not Zach.”

“Not usually, at least not with strangers.”

“I’m no stranger! I already told you, I’m Chris Pine. We’re practically best friends already.”

Although his eyes were still trained on the road ahead of him, his smile spanned his face. The driver, Chris apparently, reached out and placed a heavy hand on Zach’s shoulder, shaking him back and forth. He had a nice smile, a genuine smile.

“Knowing each other’s names does not equate camaraderie.”

“Way to break out the vocabulary, you nerd,” he teased. When Zach didn’t respond he pressed on. “So, tell me your story.”

“It’s really quite cliché and boring,” he replied flatly.

“Enlighten me,” he tested and drummed on the steering wheel.

“I went to college, burned all the spare money that came with my scholarship, got a really useless poetry degree. No one cares about a new college grad with no money, no skills and a shit degree. My parents cut me off after I refused to come home and work with my uncle and my car’s burner to a shell two towns back. I figured I’d make my way to California where I can at least be filthy and homeless at the beach.”

Chris didn’t respond the way people usually did. He didn’t give him looks of condescension or pity or unimpressed glares with pursed lips. He didn’t say _you should have known_ , or _I wish I could help,_ or _that’s what you get for going with poetry,_ or _you idiot, there’s nothing in California._ No, instead he barked out a laugh and turned up the almost inaudible radio. His smile widened and his hands tapped emphatically on the wheel.

“You know, Zach, I can see where you’re comin’ from. It was pretty ambitious of you, you know? To go for a degree in poetry? And you know,” he slammed his foot on the gas on the car roared forward. “I can admire that. I bet you’ve got a pretty _spectacular_ control of literary and verbal language. Hell, I _know_ you do! That vocabulary of yours! I wish I was as brave as you. I sure as hell wanted to go after an English major of some kind but I let the people in my life pressure me into going for law. And would you guess what?” he paused. “Now, I’m some deadbeat college drop out with a nice car and rich grandparents. You said you’re headed to California?”

Zach gulped and nodded. He was never a huge stickler for rules but Chris’s foot seemed to be glued to the gas pedal, and the wind rushing through the windows practically drowned out the sound of Chris’s voice.

“Tell ya what!” he shouted giddily. “If you let me stop in Las Vegas and schmooze my abuelos one day on our way there I’ll take you there myself and make sure you’re at least filthy with somewhere to live with.”

 Zach’s eyes went wide and he ogled Chris. Had he really just said what he thought Chris had said? Was Chris honestly offering to find him a place to live? It had to be some kind of big joke, right? No one would just offer to do all of that.

“Listen, I’ve been on my own for weeks now. Town after town and bar after bar. It starts to get lonely, you know? I was heading to my grandparent’s anyway and-hey!-why not settle down in California and help someone who needs it? I’m sure I could use a lot more of your help than you do mine anyway!”

“Wait-WHAT?” Zach called over the noise of the engine and the radio blaring pop music. “Wha-I just met you! I don’t even know you! I can’t just let you do all this and agree to live with you or whatever it is that you’re implying. Ten minutes and a bit of honesty doesn’t make a bond like that. I _don’t even know you_.”

Chris’s soft aloofness suddenly shifted to a grizzlier thoughtful stare. Zach was taken aback at how quick this goofy kid could suddenly look so mature. He felt like an idiot for being hung up on them still, but his eyes were more of a storm color than the turquoise they had been before. He reached forward and pressed a dial on the radio, changing it from the radio to the CD player. Zach would have rolled his eyes at the fact that it was indie if it weren’t for the serious tone.

“Listen, I just poured my heart out to you. You know everything there is to know about me. I’m homeless because I dropped out of college and I have no clue what the hell I’m doing with my life. I’m like you; I’m wandering and trying to find somewhere where I won’t be so fucking miserable. I want something better. Okay?” he shouted. “You know everything. You know what makes me angry and what makes me cry. You know what keeps me up at night and what drives me to throw myself at any girl who makes eye contact. You know what makes me resent ever listening to my parents or the people I called friends. You know what? You know my entire existence! And what’s worse is that there’s practically nothing else to it. It’s awful and there’s no getting around it. You now know Chris Pine, okay?”

His eyes were stormy and raging. Chris had held the same seething and choleric tone in his voice without raising it save for the once. As opposed to how they had before, his hands gripped the steering wheel and gritted his teeth. Zach hadn’t even noticed that he was now driving under the speed limit.

“Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“I-I’d really like to help, but this isn’t really something I know how to do,” he mumbled. “You can let me off at the next mile marker.”

Zach felt awful for saying it, but he had no idea how to handle a reckless and lonely guy. Chris looked at him out of the corner of his eye, now emotionless. His driving slowed to a comfortable pace and he turned the radio down until it was only a whisper. He nodded sharply and continued to drive without meeting his eye again.

The car slowed and once again stopped, as promised, at the next mile marker. Zach grabbed his bag from the back and climbed out of the car. Before Chris could drive away he gripped the door frame and craned his neck into the car. At this point he only seemed to be an empty husk. No light and no optimism.

“Listen-uh-you take care, ok?” he stumbled. “Go visit your grandparents and maybe call up your mom and dad. You really shouldn’t hold onto all of that. It helps to, you know, share some of the load.”

“Like I just did with you, huh?”

“Chris-”

“Whatever,” he scoffed. “This never happened. I’d like to say it was nice to meet you, but-”

Zach had enough time to step away from the car as Chris once again sped the car away. The plume of dust that arose coated Zach in another layer of dust. Back to square one, he guessed. The silhouette of the car slowly faded into the horizon as Zach once again drudged forward.

**Author's Note:**

> This is not a finished work!


End file.
